The official acknowledged that many students are struggling to pay their fees and that there's a very high dropout rate.
The Executive Secretary of the Student Loan Board, Akintunde Sawyerr, has said the student loan application to be launched soon will be devoid of human interference.
Mr Sawyerr spoke about the "impending launch of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund" to the state house correspondents on Monday.
He said the intention behind the Access to Higher Education Act 2023, was to ensure that the lack of finance is not a reason for any Nigerian not to go further in their education at a tertiary level.
"This law seeks to bridge the gap between the desire to study and the capacity to go further. It seeks to bridge that gap, one that is created by lack of finance, lack of funding," he said.
He added that the scheme would look into supporting those who are most needy in the first instance.
Mr Sawyer noted that the portal for the student application has been developed to ensure seamless application.
Application processes
The official added that during the application, students will simply input their personal data including their National Identification Number (NIN) and admission number.
He said once it is approved, the school fees will be disbursed directly to the schools and not to students' personal accounts.
"In application and in applying for this loan, there is zero human intervention. In other words, there is an app. The applicant will go on to a portal, they will engage with that app. They will have to put in certain pieces of information which made them eligible- their JAMB number, and of course their date of birth," he said.
"Further pieces of information include things like their national identity number, NIN, which confirms that they are Nigerians. This loan scheme is being paid for by Nigerian taxpayers, so it is for Nigerians, and the NIN helps verify and qualify them as such."
The official acknowledged that many students are struggling to pay their fees and that there's a very high dropout rate.
"So it's one thing to get into tertiary institutions, it is another thing to stay there for four years or for three years.
This scheme seeks to help people access and remain until they qualify or graduate," Mr Sawyerr noted.
FIRS chairman speaks
Also speaking, the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Zacch Adedeji, said the Education Tax would form part of the sources of funding the student loan fund.
He said: "This is one of the schemes the education tax we will collect will be applied to. So, this is a way of being accountable to the taxpayer. Because the essence of education tax is to consolidate and restore education integrity and quality, and in fulfilling that part of the Act.
"So, that is why the education tax fund is one of the sources of funding and by God's grace we'll execute this laudable programme."
Students Loan
President Bola Tinubu signed the Access to Higher Education Act, 2023 into law, weeks after he was sworn in, in an attempt to fulfill one of his campaign promises.
The Act, popularly known as the Students Loan Law, seeks to provide loans for indigent Nigerian students to pay fees in any Nigerian tertiary institution.
The Act establishes the Nigerian Education Loan Fund which is expected to handle all loan requests, grants, disbursement, and recovery.
The Fund, according to the Act, is to be funded from multiple streams and will engage in other productive activities.
Its sources of funding as dictated by the Act include; one per cent of all profits accruing to the federal government from oil and other minerals; one per cent of taxes, levies and duties accruing to the federal government from the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) and Nigerian Customs Service (NCS); education bonds and education endowment fund schemes.
The government also said the fund will also be funded through donations, gifts, grants, endowment, and revenue accruing to the fund from any other source, according to the Act.
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The government initially said it was to take effect in September but it didn't. Later, President Tinubu announced that the implementation would begin in January. He proposed N50 billion for its take-off in the 2024 budget he submitted to the National Assembly.
A PREMIUM TIMES review of the conditions for accessing the loans revealed some stringent measures that may make it difficult for many Nigerian students to benefit.
For instance, applicants must provide at least two guarantors, each of whom must either be a civil servant of at least level 12; a lawyer with at least 10 years post-call experience, or a judicial officer, or a justice of peace. Also, only applicants whose family income is less than N500,000 per annum are eligible to apply for the loan.
But last July, Mr Tinubu, ordered removal of all restrictions to accessing the student loan even though it had yet to take off at the time. It is unclear if the suspension remains in place.
Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe
